Marina Grochocki

Marina Cavichiolo Grochocki earned her PhD in Classics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2024. She is now an Assistant Professor in the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on Greek and Latin poetry, Classics and the environmental humanities, and reception studies in Latin America.

Grochocki’s work examines how Roman authors shaped natural environments in literature to express socio‑political power, with particular attention to representations of minoritized individuals and their interactions with nature. Her current book project investigates pastoral epigrams from collections such as the Appendix Vergiliana and the Latin Anthology, arguing that poems often dismissed as aesthetically “bad” depart from canonical norms to articulate innovative ideas and new subjectivities in antiquity and today.

She also teaches Latin language, Greek and Roman mythology, and courses on the Classical tradition, emphasizing how knowledge is never neutral and how ancient cultures illuminate the ways contemporary worlds are shaped by belief and action. Her additional projects explore natural imagery and identity, including studies on Pliny the Elder’s plants and the late‑antique Vandal poet Luxurius’ animals.